LOS ANGELES — A 13-unit affordable housing complex built in an offsite factory could soon open doors to housing for transitional youth and low-income families in Santa Monica. As a renter in the city, Mayor Lana Negrete says the Berkeley Station building could change the way affordable housing is built.

What You Need To Know

  • The 24 modules were fitted on a narrow lot, block-by-block over three days

  • Before the installation, Steve Glenn, the CEO of Plant Prefab, said paneling for each of the modules were built in an automated assembly line in the state

  • Executive director Tara Barauskas with the Community Corporation of Santa Monica, a nonprofit that restores, builds, and manages affordable housing, says the 100% electric development is moving faster than a traditional construction schedule

  • As a renter, Mayor Negrete hopes this will help some of the 750 people in the city experiencing homelessness - afford their own homes one day.

“Santa Monica has been known to be the lead in renter’s rights protecting our renters. We’re number one in the state named pro-housing and so we are always trying to find innovative new ways, public-private partnerships to create affordable housing,” Negrete said.

The 24 modules were fitted on a narrow lot, block-by-block over three days. Before the installation, Steve Glenn, the CEO of Plant Prefab, said paneling for each of the modules were built in an automated assembly line in the state.

“Those were made with automation and that was done offsite and then on these automated lines, and then we have these three module lines and install the millwork, the tiles and the appliances,” Glenn said.

Executive director Tara Barauskas with the Community Corporation of Santa Monica, a nonprofit that restores, builds and manages affordable housing, said the 100% electric development is moving faster than a traditional construction schedule.

“We were able to build the onsite elements at the same time as the offsite elements so that saved time overall this process is taking about nine months whereas normally if we were building everything ground up on the property that would be about 20 months,” Barauskas said.

But she said there is a delay with one of the electrical components.

“There’s one element called switchgear, which is actually manufactured overseas in Ukraine and there’s been a big backlog ever since the war started. So that has been a delay that has been outside this whole process. We’re hoping that by the end of summer, people would be able to move in,” she said.

As a renter, Negrete hopes this will help some of the 750 people in the city experiencing homelessness — afford their own homes one day.

“This is definitely the pilot and the landmark if you will for other communities and ourselves to learn from and we’ll see in two, three, four years' time, once this goes through other weather cycles and we have some usage, we’ll be able to see how this really holds up,” Negrete said.

The 11,000-square-foot site will also include a rooftop deck, solar panels, laundry facilities, a community room and a garden.